The Malthusian strategists know exactly what they’re doing; whether Donald Copperfield does is another matter. Handing Tomahawks to Kyiv isn’t an innocent act born of ignorance — it’s a deliberate escalation with foreseeable consequences. If you equip a reckless cokehead for offensive operations, you aren’t naïve; you’re selecting a path toward wider war. This isn’t about rescuing a nation so much as choosing a theatre for global confrontation. Europeans should soberly consider the odds before applauding acts that could provoke a much larger conflict.

World War III may well be warming up for a 2026 debut, yet not a single ordinary Russian, European, American, Japanese, or Chinese citizen has asked for tickets. The common folk simply want to work, raise families, and maybe enjoy a quiet evening without being drafted into someone else’s grand strategy. But in the great global chess match, WE THE PEOPLE remain the pawns—useful, expendable, and never asked for consent. Our blood oils the gears while the ‘Educated Yet Idiots’ play war games for power. Wars are never launched by the people who must fight them, only by those who should never be allowed anywhere near the reins of power.

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https://themacrobutler.substack.com/p/wired-for-wealth-how-the-us-grid

As Washington’s shutdown circus rolls on, the ISM Manufacturing PMI slipped from 49.1 to 48.7—its eighth straight month in contraction. Production and new orders look “encouraging,” but under the hood it’s more jalopy than juggernaut. Unsold inventories just saw an unprecedented jump, export sales are sputtering, and unless demand magically revives, factories may soon be downshifting. Prices paid are falling fast, new orders and employment remain in contraction, and CEO optimism is drifting back toward “tariff-season gloom.’ In short: tariffs are still jacking up costs, trade policy is still confusing everyone, the shutdown isn’t helping, and consumer-oriented industries are feeling it first. Other than that, everything’s fine.

In a nutshell, as Washington’s shutdown drags on, U.S. manufacturing is sliding deeper into contraction, buried under falling demand, swelling inventories, and policy chaos masquerading as strategy.

The American empire isn’t just cracking from the outside; it’s hollowing out from within. Trust in public institutions has evaporated so completely that members of the administration now live under the Army’s protective wing, retreating to military bases around Washington as if civilian life had become a dangerous experiment. The Atlantic reports senior officials relocating after waves of doxxing, threats, and intelligence warnings of “inevitable unrest.” Homes once reserved for generals are now emergency housing for policymakers—an arrangement critics say blurs the line between civilian government and the uniforms meant to serve it. Whether they like it or not, these officials have become temporary residents of Fortress America, a place where public servants can no longer safely live among the public they serve.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/10/trump-officials-military-housing-stephen-miller/684748/

Even the president seems to be bracing for a storm. The White House’s latest “ballroom renovation”—a polite phrase for demolishing the East Wing and replacing it with a 90,000-square-foot fortress—comes with security upgrades no one will officially describe. The old Presidential Emergency Operations Centre is being modernized, expanded, and quietly folded into a project that looks suspiciously less like interior design and more like bunker-centric nation-planning. The White House Military Office is running the show, architects are protesting that the new structure will swallow the historic complex whole, and critics wonder whether the real centerpiece isn’t the ballroom at all, but the subterranean refuge beneath it. In classic Orwellian fashion, the government assures us it’s just redecorating—while digging deeper underground.

https://www.themirror.com/news/us-news/donald-trump-white-house-bunker-1468826

In a nutshell, as trust in U.S. institutions crumbles, officials retreat to military bases and the White House quietly fortifies its underground bunkers—proof that “Fortress America” is being built faster than anyone will admit.

As the U.S. government shutdown drags on—now so bad it’s apparently slowing down the airspace—ADP reported that private payrolls rose by 42,000 after dropping 29,000 the previous month. Economists expected 30,000, so at least someone beat a forecast this week. With official data stuck in shutdown limbo, ADP is one of the few clues left about the job market. The takeaway? Hiring is still happening, just at the limp, half-hearted pace of a country waiting for Washington to remember how to govern.

Wage growth has been flatter than a day-old soda for over a year, suggesting the labour market’s supply and demand are grudgingly balanced. Still, headline layoffs from Amazon, Starbucks, and Target have everyone nervously refreshing LinkedIn. Jobless claims remain low—for now—but the “no-firing” truce could easily crack. October saw a modest rebound: services added 32k jobs, goods producers 9k, and most of the gains came from education, health care, and transportation. Meanwhile, professional services, information, and even leisure and hospitality keep shedding workers for a third straight month, and small businesses haven’t added jobs in three months.

In a shutdown-strangled economy, hiring is limping along, wages are flat, layoffs are creeping in, and the ADP report is basically the only pulse check left—showing a job market that’s alive, but far from well.

While U.S. manufacturing is still moping in the corner, the services sector is apparently riding high on the great AI fairy tale. October’s ISM services index jumped to 52.4, thanks to new orders from data centres and a burst of M&A activity that may or may not last longer than a news cycle. Prices paid hit their highest level since 2022—because nothing says “booming economy” like everything getting more expensive. Employment is still contracting, just a bit less miserably than before. But sure, if you squint hard enough, this all adds up to an economy growing at a tidy 2.5% annualized pace.

In a nutshell, the services sector is cheerfully riding the AI hype while prices surge, jobs shrink, and manufacturing sulks—yet somehow the data still insists the economy is growing.

A quarter-century after New York was shaken by terrorism and immortalized by Gordon Gekko as capitalism’s high temple, the city has now elected a democratic socialist mayor—prompting half the country to declare the American Dream officially “under renovation.” Zohran Mamdani, 34, swept into office with 50.4% of the vote, becoming the youngest NYC mayor in a century and the first South Asian and first Muslim to hold the job. He promised a “new era” of governance powered by cheaper living, faster buses, and taxes wealthy New Yorkers already feel forming a lump in their throats.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/flashback-wildest-moments-mamdani-overcame-campaign-trail-become-nycs-next-mayor

Wall Street didn’t bother waiting for Mayor-Elect Mamdani’s victory speech before fleeing New York; the stampede to “Y’all Street” was already well underway. Dallas has become the new financial Ellis Island, welcoming bankers, hedge funds, and fintechs desperate for fresh air, lower taxes, and a regulatory environment that doesn’t lecture them about their carbon footprint. Texas now boasts more finance workers than New York, Goldman is building a half-billion-dollar campus, JPMorgan is quietly shifting its centre of gravity south, and the brand-new Texas Stock Exchange—backed by BlackRock, Citadel, and Schwab—promises IPOs without the Manhattan migraine. With New York piling on taxes, mandates, and DEI paperwork thicker than a prospectus, Wall Street’s glory days are giving way to a new era where the trading floor soundtrack is less “Buy!” and more “Howdy.”

https://sherwood.news/markets/texas-wants-a-piece-of-wall-street-txse/

As the political circus that is the American Banana Republic enters yet another act, it’s no shock that U.S. consumer sentiment just fell to a three-year low. The government shutdown is fogging up the economic outlook, prices are still biting, and Americans now rank their personal finances somewhere between “not great” and “please make it stop.” The University of Michigan’s sentiment index slid to 50.3, with current conditions hitting a record low as worries about the shutdown, layoffs, and a weakening job market pile up.

Even though long-term inflation expectations eased a bit, fears of unemployment jumped, buying conditions tanked, and optimism evaporated. With official data silenced by the shutdown, Americans are left relying on surveys and vibes—and the vibes aren’t good.

As Washington’s shutdown drags on, consumer sentiment has crashed to a three-year low, with Americans feeling poorer, worried about their jobs, and convinced the economy is running on political circus fumes.

🤵 The Macro Butler Weekly Digest 🤵

🌐 The more the ‘Educated Yet Idiots’ borrow to stay popular, the closer the world is to the next debt jubilee. 🌐

Read more here: https://themacrobutler.substack.com/p/when-debt-trap-turns-into-jubilee